In their previous issue, the noted german c't magazine had an interesting article about different drives and their usefulness for ripping and burning of audio CDs. So good in fact that i want to post some of the results here. I encourage any german reader to buy c't magazine, it's by far the best around. I don't want to spoil anything with these excerpts. Please order the mag and read the full article. Germans can also order the article for 0.80 Euro here.

So anyway, they had several DVD and CD burners for the roundup. The read tests were done with EAC (in secure mode). For the write tests, they sent the media to Audiodev in Sweden for detailed CATS analysis.

Keep in mind that these results are for (audio) CDs only, not for DVD ripping/burning.

They also tested different CD-R media as to which can offer the best burn quality. They were burned with the NEC ND-4551A and the Plextor PX-760A, sent to Audiodev, and the results were averaged. They were also subjected to 100 hours of 80°C and 85% humidity to simulate aging, for 20 discs of each brand ("durability").

4166B is identical with 2166D, except that 2166D is external. Not 100% sure about the 4167B, but I thought if the previous model 4166B has a new hardware, LG might continued using it in the 4167B.

QUOTE (Anansi @ Jul 19 2006, 17:19)

ps: sebastian cdrlabs forum aparently the folks at cdrlabs have already been throug the is it a real plextor or not discution and seem to agree its an original plextor

Sorry, but I fail to see any major discussion there whether or not it's a real Plextor. The OP only posted something that looks like a Plextor press release and the rest only asked if it should be seen as update to Plextor Premium or not and some mentioned the price still being high compared to NEC DVD burners.

4166B is identical with 2166D, except that 2166D is external. Not 100% sure about the 4167B, but I thought if the previous model 4166B has a new hardware, LG might continued using it in the 4167B.

QUOTE (Anansi @ Jul 19 2006, 17:19)

ps: sebastian cdrlabs forum aparently the folks at cdrlabs have already been throug the is it a real plextor or not discution and seem to agree its an original plextor

Sorry, but I fail to see any major discussion there whether or not it's a real Plextor. The OP only posted something that looks like a Plextor press release and the rest only asked if it should be seen as update to Plextor Premium or not and some mentioned the price still being high compared to NEC DVD burners.

yes you're quite right actually but I also can't seem to locate any information on it being a rebadged unit (well I can find claims of a rebadge) can anyone point out to specific facts that state its a rebadge (you have indicated some info, do you own one and have tested it, otherwise where did you get your info (sharing is good (and also spath's cache explorer seems to disagree with some of your statements ), I can't seem to find any real test results on it anywhere and the few info I find seems to be contradictory, thanks in advance for all the help (btw lacking that is there any good affordable drive wich can overread lead in/out and htoa? ) (the px-230 seemed liked a good candidate specially considering the c't review but I can't confirm those keys features ) (btw if it is a rebadge who is the oem manufacturer?)

and does the drives read offset match that of a benq or does its size match that of a philips, you keep working on the assunption that it must be a rebadge therefore I should look for those details but I have yet to see a statement that goes something like "ah this drive has x feature/size/offset therefore its a rebadge" all I have been able to find so far is statements that the drive is a rebadge and therefore must lack certain features not a real reviews of its actual features,( just an assumption that it can't have certain features because it must be a rebadge and... a bit of circular reasoning going on there...), wich is what Im looking for so if anyone can point me in the proper way please let me know, thanks in advance

and does the drives read offset match that of a benq or does its size match that of a philips, you keep working on the assunption that it must be a rebadge therefore I should look for those details but I have yet to see a statement that goes something like "ah this drive has x feature/size/offset therefore its a rebadge" all I have been able to find so far is statements that the drive is a rebadge and therefore must lack certain features not a real reviews of its actual features,( just an assumption that it can't have certain features because it must be a rebadge and... a bit of circular reasoning going on there...), wich is what Im looking for so if anyone can point me in the proper way please let me know, thanks in advance

more to the point does anyone here actually own one?

Just visit the Accuraterip Drive Offset Database and you'll see ... besides, the PX-230A is based on an ALi chipset whereas every single one of Plextor's own productions is based on Sanyo chipsets.